At times, vehicle tires lose the integrity of the seal between the tire bead and the formed contact retaining ring region on the rim. The tire then goes flat and cannot be re-inflated using a normal tire compressor since the gap between tire bead and rim leaks air profusely and prevents the pressure from building up in a normal fashion.
This “loss of bead” is caused by various events such as hitting a pot hole at speed, rolling over a boulder off-road or on typical farm paths, or just due to a slow leak causing a flat tire. Especially on large trucks or busses with tandem wheels, a tire going flat is often masked by the adjacent tire. Since the “flat” tire of a tandem pair is loose, there is a high likelihood of bead loss upon acceleration or deceleration.
Besides tire mounting machines at tire shops, other devices and methods have been used to restore tire bead integrity and re-inflate tires. For example, the Cheetah Tire Bead Seater consists of a 10 gallon tank holding pressurized air at up to 160 psi with a large diameter exit tube ending in a flat flared opening that is fitted between the tire and the rim on the side of bead loss. A high flow dump valve is then opened to quickly blast the tankful of air into the tire at such a high rate to overwhelm the gap air loss and expand the tire so that the tire bead is again seated against the rim and the tire is inflated.
Rema Tip Top bead seaters fit around a tire and compress the tire thread around the circumference thereby forcing the side walls outward into contact with the rim. This closes the rim/tire bead gap permitting inflation of the tire by a normal compressor at a slow rate.
The AA Doughnut-style bead seater is a large rubber O-ring of appropriate size to be stretched onto the rim adjacent to the tire to provide a temporary seal between tire and rim. Inflation of tire then pops out the AA bead seater.
A backyard method uses a squirt of pressurized liquid butane into the tire that has lost its bead contact. The butane vaporizes and combines with ambient air to form an explosive mixture which is then ignited thereby popping the tire into place instantly if the proper amount of butane were used.
The Cheetah device is heavy, bulky, and quite expensive. The Rema Tip Top units must be sized for a particular range of tire sizes; they require jacking or removal of the tire in question, and at way over $100, they are expensive. The AA Doughnut rubber ring devices usually require the use of lubricant to permit them to slide on the rim inner surface; they must be sized to the rim in use, and they cannot be used on inner surfaces or tires of a tandem pair without removing the tire since the axle is an interference. The backyard method described is quite dangerous.
The present invention is a low cost disposable kit which mitigates or eliminates the shortcomings of the prior art devices and methods.